Sealed bearing



A. J. wAs'LEY SEALED BEARING Nov. 14, 1961 Original Filed April 16, 1958INVENTOR v /A-vwaRJ.' M546);

United States Pate 3,008,343 SEALED BEARING Arthur J. Wasley, Bristol,Conn., assignor to Continental Engineering Corporation, Farmington,Conn. Original application Apr. 16, 1958, Ser. No. 728,859, now PatentNo. 2,960,372, dated Nov. 15, 1960. Divided and this application Dec. 3,1959, Ser. No. 856,971

3 Claims. (Cl. 74-501) This invention relates to a sealed bearing andmore particularly to a bearing adapted to operate at high temperaturesfor use in airfranies and the like. The present application is adivision of application Serial No. 728,859 filed April 16, 1958, nowPatent Number 2,960,372.

Heretofore, considerable diiliculty has been encountered in connectionwith the use of ball bearings for airframe pulleys. Such ball bearingsrequire lubrication and the usual grease compounds do not have therequisite ternperature range. Oil systems could be used but would beexceedingly costly for such applications. Therefore, there is a verydeiinite need in the art for a Simp-le bearing seal which is completelyeffective over a wide temperature range.

According to the present invention there is provided a pulley which iscompletely sealed and in which the lubricating materials are underpressure so that a wider temperature range is provided. According -tothe present invention the pulley is disposed within a casing and a wirecord lits around the pulley `and extends through two openings providedin the casing. These openings are sealed by a bellows structure securedto both the casing and the wire cord. Thus, limited movement of the cordaround the pulley is provided for. The casing is evacuated of air andlubricating oil and an inert gas Ifills the casing. The gas is underpressure so that the ash point of the oil is raised. By using an inertatmosphere corrosion problems are eliminated and -standard bearing steelor tool steels may be used to fabricate the pulley rather than moreexpensive corrosion resistant bearing steels.

An object of rthe present invention is to prov-ide a sealed bear-ing forpulleys which is particularly well suited for high temperatureapplications.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a pulley whichis completely encased wherein the lubricating uid is under pressure sothat the operating temperature may be substantially increased.

`Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of the presentinvention will become apparent upon consideration of the followingdetailed specification in connection with the accompanying drawingswherein: Y

PIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the pulley in elevation, and FIG. 2is a cross-sectional View along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

Referring now to the drawings Iwherein like numerals indicate like partsthroughout the several views there is shown at 1 in FIG. 1 a casing.'This casing is formed of two members as shown in FIG. 2 and thesemembers comprise a plate 2 having a anged central opening 3 with aperipheral ange 4. A cover plate 5 has an inwardly extending beaded rim6 which cooperates with the flange 4 to form an air-tight casing 7. Acover plate '5 has a 3,008,343 Patented Nov. 14, 1961 central angedopening 7 and the flanges 3 and 7 cooperate to securely grip the innerrace 8 of a ball bearing. The outer race 9 of the ball bearing is infrictional engagement with the grooved pulley wheel 10.

As shown in FIG. l the member 2 is provided with ports 11 and 12 andsecured around these ports are bellows 13 and 14 respectively. A wirecable 15 passes through the ports 11 and 12 and around a portion of theperiphery of the pulley 10. Cable 15 is secured to the bellows 13 bymeans of a bolt 16 having a nut 17 disposed thereon. The outer periphery`of the bellows is engaged between the head on the bolt 16 land the nut17 and the bolt is in tight -frictional engagement with the cable whichpasses therethrough. A bolt 1-8 provides means for similarly grippingthe bellows 14.

'Ihe chamber formed by the casing and bellows is completely air-tight4and air is evacuated so that the chamber may be filled with oil and aninert gas so that the oil will be under pressure. Alternatively, theentire chamber could be filled with oil. `lt is preferable, however, toplace the oil under pressure so as to raise the operating temperat-urerange of the pulley. By completely enclosing the pulley and bearing inan air-tight housing and by evacuating the chamber of air, corrosionproblems are substantially eliminated. Thus, it is unnecessary to usethe corrosion resistant steel and standard bearing steel and tool steelmay be utilized.

Obviously many modiications and variations of the present invention arepossible in light 4of the above teachings. What is claimed as new anddesired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

l. A sealed bearing for an air frame pulley comprising a casing having apair of ports therein, a pair of resilient bellows secured to saidports, abearing mounted in said casing, a pulley mounted on saidbearing, a cable passing around a portion of the periphery of saidpulley and through said openings and means securing said cable to saidbellows.

2. A sealed bearing for a pulley comprising, a housing, a bearingdisposed within said housing, a pulley mounted on said bearing, a cablepassing over the pulley and extending lthrough an opening in saidhousing, and a bellolws secured to said housing and said cable wherebyan airtight casing is provided for said pulley.

3. A sealed bearing for a pulley comprising, a housing including a platehaving a flanged periphery and a flanged central aperture, a cover platehaving a anged central aperture, said cover plate adapted to be seatedin airtight relation wi-th respect to said plate, `a bearing includinginner and outer races, the flanges on the central aperture on the plateand cover plate adapted to be seated on the inner bea-ring race, apulley mounted on the outer bearing race, a pair of ports in saidhousing, a cable extending over the pulley and through the ponts,bellows secured to said housing and said cable at each of said ports anda lubricant substantially filling the housing.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS DunnMar. 4, 1958

